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Perfect Storm
Thu Nov 04, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
The Pacific Northwest is noted for its weather—or lack thereof. Usually nothing too
dramatic, with mild air and gentle rains. A swing in temperature of 30 degrees makes
the headlines. But when it does get wild, it can really get wild. And it's never gotten
wilder than it did on Columbus Day in 1962. That's the year a colossal tempest, the
Northwest’s own Perfect Storm, stuck it to Portland and Seattle. Hi I'm Bryan Yeaton for
the Weather Notebook.
That day dawned like most other October days in the Northwest: temperatures were in
the 40s, with light winds. But out in the Pacific, some squirrelly weather was brewing.
The main ingredients in this soup were the remnants of Typhoon Freda, which had
lived out its life in the western Pacific. But the leftover moisture and low pressure from
Freda merged with a strong upper-level storm as it approached the U.S. As this new
storm swept up the coast, it changed the wind from an nice breeze from the east, to a
southerly blast. Ten reporting stations recorded winds of more than 100 miles per
hour. At Mt. Hebo, Oregon, the winds gusted to 131. Out on Cape Blanco, they hit 179.
Thousands of trees were blown down—more than 15 BILLION board-feet, valued in
2001 at 4.5 billion dollars. And power was out in some places for as long as three
weeks. 50,000 buildings were damaged.
The Columbus Day storm of 1962 caused 48 deaths; the $235 million in property
damage would cost about one-and-a-half billion today. The National Weather Service
has called it the most powerful non-tropical storm ever to strike the lower 48
states.
The 1962 Columbus Day storm did show that there's a lot more to Northwest weather
than drizzle and fog. Our show is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory,
funded by Subaru of America.
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